“PARANORMAL YEAR IN REVIEW” > Page 1, 2

In Search of Lost Worlds

• Atlantis in Bolivia? The legendary lost continent of Atlantis, which was thought to be buried in a torrent of water, may sit 12,000 feet above sea level in Bolivia, a British explorer Jim Allen said in October. Allen believes that Quillacas, a town of 1,000 people located 187 miles south of La Paz, was the center of the lost continent. The Bolivian altiplano – flooded by heavy rains tens of thousands of years ago – has at least 50 characteristics that coincide with Plato’s tale, Allen said.

Millennium Madness

The group’s lodge includes a glass tomb that they say holds an alien-like creature with a huge head and bulging eyes.

• A Mir Miss. Fashion designer Paco Rabanne, citing a Nostradamus prediction, believed Russia’s Mir space station would crash down and destroy Paris on August 11. It didn’t happen.
• Sect Claims Alien in Tomb. A sect which calls itself the Yamassee Native American Nuwaubians claimed to have created a utopian society on their 10-hectare compound of Egyptian-style architecture in Georgia. The group’s lodge includes a glass tomb that they say holds an alien-like creature with a huge head and bulging eyes. The group’s founder, Dwight York, who calls himself Malachi Z, served time in New York in the 1960s for assault, resisting arrest and possession of a dangerous weapon.

Will Miracles Never Cease?

• New Lourdes Miracle. Officially, only 66 miracles have been credited to the waters of Lourdes. Early in 1999, the 66th was declared after the complete recovery of Jean-Pierre Bely, a cripple who had been wheelchair-bound for 15 years. Bely said he heard a voice in his head say, “Get up and walk” after visiting the Catholic shrine in southwest France. Experts spent 12 years investigating the “inexplicable” cure.
• Coma Girl Works Questioned. Audrey Marie Santo – the 15-year-old girl who lies in a coma at her home in Worcester, Mass. and whose family claims that miraculous events and cures occur around her – gained a lot of attention despite the fact that a Catholic Church panel concluded that the events are deep mysteries, but not definitive miracles. The girl has been paralyzed and mute since nearly drowning in her family’s swimming pool in 1987.
• More Shroud Evidence. The Shroud of Turin continued to make news in 1999. Plant imprints and pollen found on the shroud  – revered by many as Jesus’ burial shroud – support the premise that it originated in the Holy Land, two Israeli scientists said. Skeptical scientists have used carbon dating to show that the linen postdates the crucifixion by more than a thousand years – to the 13th or 14th centuries – although others say the carbon tests may have been contaminated.
• Disappearing Bullet. For four days, 10-year-old Mikey lay in a coma with a bullet in his brain. A life-support machine was the only thing keeping him alive. “I went to heaven and I saw Jesus,” Mikey said. “My grandfather came to me and told me to go back home. He said it wasn’t my time.” What happened to the bullet? “It was on the CAT scans,” his mother said. “The doctors saw it. And then they didn’t. It disappeared.”

Monsters We Know and Love

• Chupa Attacks. Chupacabra struck again in Guanica, Puerto Rico on January 12, killing 10 chickens and two ducks. The ducks and the chickens were found with two puncture marks on their bodies. The owner pointed out that the animals had been in securely locked pens. The marks were very similar to those which had been reported on the bodies of other mutilated animals whose owners claim were victims of the Chupacabra.
• Bigfoot Hoaxer? In February, a man who chose to remain unidentified, claimed he was the “Bigfoot” in the famous 1967 Patterson-Gimlin home movie of a Sasquatch in northern California. He says he wore a fur suit for the role. But one of the men who owns rights to the film says: Prove it. “This guy is probably number 64 who claims he was in the fur suit,” said Rene Dahinden of Richmond, British Columbia.
• Scientist Hunts Sasquatch. Science joined the hunt for Bigfoot when Idaho State University anatomy professor Jeff Meldrum decided to track the elusive man-ape. “If the physical evidence is there, you can’t sweep it under the rug,” Meldrum said. His proof is the dozens of plaster casts he and other Sasquatch enthusiasts have taken from tracks found out in the field. “These tracks exhibit distinctions in proportion and anatomy that are consistent with the size and purported gait of the Sasquatch.”
• Sasquatch Sightings. Around April and May, three separate sightings of Sasquatch were reported near Hayfork, Calif. In one sighting, a 25-year-old Hayfork woman said she saw an approximately 8-foot-tall Bigfoot trying to catch fish at Ewing Reservoir, north of Hayfork. “She said he just stood there from about 70 feet away until he saw her move,” he said. “Her story sounds pretty credible.”

“There are places where you can see territorial markings and snaps that the creature has made in the trees.”

• Sasquatch Living Quarters? Dallas Gilbert believes he may have found a Bigfoot stomping ground and burial ground. “There are places where you can see territorial markings and snaps that the creature has made in the trees,” Gilbert said. “There are even canopies and bows made of trees for him to sleep under.” A burial stone with the impression of Bigfoot is another piece of evidence Gilbert points to as proof the creature exists. “It looks like a tombstone almost,” Gilbert said.

• Nessie on the Web. Nessie was sighted on the Internet! A couple from Galveston, Texas, watching a webcam at Scotland On Line, spotted the monster. “We saw a head and neck appear in front of the castle and it was traveling fairly fast, with a V-shaped wake behind it. We watched till it swam off screen.”
• Hunting Dinosaurs. Scientists announced the mounting of an expedition to hunt for a brontosaurus-like creature in a remote area of central Africa. The aquatic animal, about nine meters long, has been seen by dozens of Africans living in villages around the swamps that dominate much of Congo, Gabon, and Cameroon. They call it the mokele-mbembe – “blocker of rivers.”
• Lizard Man Attacks. Christopher Davis, 17, told police that he had been attacked by a creature – dubbed Lizard Man – while changing near Bishopville, S.C. He said the creature stood more than 7 feet tall and was black-green. It grabbed the door of his car, running as fast as 35 mph as he fled, he said. “It was strong, and it wasn’t an animal, and it wasn’t a man,” he told the local sheriff.
• Swedish Lake Monster Spotted. During the summer, three new sightings were reported of the lake monster said to inhabit Sweden’s Great Lake. All of them described this creature as long and dark, like a snake, with a small head like a dog. Sightings of the monster, Sweden’s answer to Scotland’s Loch Ness monster, have been reported on nearly 160 occasions by over 450 people since 1635.  

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